9 Tools To Create Your Own Chatbots

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) has found scope in a myriad of sectors and it is doing wonders for mankind. Designing software-based tools for automating various business workflows and processes is becoming the hottest trend. From artificial robots to modern Node bots, artificial intelligence is the future of technology. Chatbot is also one such innovation which is based on artificial intelligence.

The popularity of messaging apps is increasing rapidly and business owners can see themselves benefiting from this trend. Just like social media websites, messaging apps provide a lot of marketing and user acquisition opportunities for business owners. They can market their products as well as offer customer services to users through popular chat applications like Slack, Facebook Messenger, Hipchat, MSN and more. Chatbots are basically AI-based software applications which can be integrated into messaging platforms and can be pre-programmed for performing a range of conversation and self-promotion tasks. Chatbots can be commanded to function in a specific way based on received responses as well as stored information.

Today, chatbots are used in various fields, such as customer service, e-commerce and marketing. They can be programmed to think and behave just like human beings and can single-handedly perform a range of tasks. They can be useful in communicating new offers to online shoppers, providing information about products or services, collecting information or feedback from the customers and monitoring consumer preferences. So, if you are business owner or a developer who is interested in building bots, then here are 9 popular platforms to try out for creating your own chatbots.

Facebook Messenger Platform is a big player in the world of chatbot development. It offers a range tools for creating chatbots and live messaging tools. The platform features Wit.ai tool which allows integrating conversational interfaces and bots in to applications. It also provides built-in templates and plugins which enable integrating personalized text messages, photos, CTAs (Call-to-Action) and more into chats and messages as well as Messenger buttons in to E-mails and websites. Facebook Messenger Platform has also benefited from an ecosystem of various developer tools and resources, such as JavaScript SDK console, Ads Manager, Analytics tool for App and more.

Chatfuel is one of the most popular tools for creating chatbots for Facebook Messenger. The tool has robust AI capabilities (artificial intelligence) which allows building chatbots without any programming knowledge. Chatfuel has catered to over 7 million users globally. Chatfuel is used by renowned companies like Uber, National Geographic and Tech Crunch. Over 230,000 chatbots have been created using Chatfuel for various industries, such as sports, hospitality, publishing and E-commerce.

Smooch is another useful tool for building and integrating chatbots in messaging apps. It supports various platforms like Android and iOS providing various in-app, live web and rich messaging services. Smooch integrates with Stripe which allows engaging online customers, providing an improved online shopping experience, accepting payments and fulfilling orders easily. The platform allows leveraging a range of messaging platforms, such as Twilio, WeChat, Shopify and Telegram. Smooch seamlessly integrates with Facebook Messenger using much of its features, such as images, GIFs, Emojis and buttons. It also synchronizes with various other business tools, such as Front, Slack, Hipchat and Zendesk.

Botsify is another chatbot building tool focussed on Facebook Messenger. Botsify offers a simple-to-use interface which enables business owners to build a chatbot without having to write any code. The platform provides a Facebook Messenger API offering features that allow developers to configure personalized responses, schedule messages, integrate with WordPress and Medium as well as pull data from data analytics tools. Botsify supports rich media content, including videos, images and audio files.

Beep Boop is a modern platform for building and hosting bot projects for Facebook Messenger and Slack. The source code for bot projects is hosted on GitHub and since bots run as Docker containers, they can be written using any programming language like Ruby, Python, Go and JavaScript. Beep Boop offers some great features, such as building notifications, hosting public bots and support for auto-up gradation as well as continuous integration through GitHub.

Pandorabots is a suite of web-based tools and services which enables developers to build and host chatbots. The suite features an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for building chatbots called ‘The Pandorabots Playground’. It also has a tool named as AIaaS (Artificial Intelligence as a Service) which is a RESTful API for accessing the bot hosting platform and integrating chatbot in to web and mobile applications. Pandorabots allows creating AI-based chatbots for customer service, IoT interfaces, advertising, games and more. Pandorabots boosts of an online community of 225 K+ developers and so far 285 K+ chatbots have been created using its platform.

Microsoft offers its own platform for developing bots which offers improved conversation creation and attachment options. Microsoft Bot Framework allows building bots for Skype, Facebook Messenger text messages, Slack, Office 365, E-mail and more. The tool offers bot builders with SDKs for Node.js and .NET platform. Developers can also visit its Bot Directory which features an impressive collection of pre-built bots and try out some featured bots, such as Horoscope Bot, BlackJack Bot, travel assistant, Hipmunk and more.

Motion AI offers a robsut platform for enterprises to build and deploy chatbots for a range of mediums, including Facebook Messenger, Slack, E-mail, Web and SMS. Motion AI comes with a free plan as well as several premium plans for large companies. It also provides good documentation to create a chatbot easily. Motion Ai is also bringing a bot store very soon which should allow developers to share their chatbots with others as well as collaborate with others over bot creations.

Dexter is a great platform for building bots for several popular messaging platforms which provide an open API, like Viber, Telegram, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Kik, Slack and Telegram. Dexter offers 250+ integrations for analytics, deployment and various other enterprise-level solutions. It also provides good documentation and technical assistance for SDK installation, custom bot creation, distribution services and more.

Conclusion:
Chatbots are indeed a unique way to engage with the users and offer services like weather updates, online shopping assistance, push messages and customer service. Their popularity is growing rapidly and we will be able to see some more interesting and intelligent chat bots in the near future. If you want to share any relevant information or feedback then you can write to us in the comments section below. Thank you.